THE WINNER OF FORTHCOMING Artes Mundi Prize will be an artist of color. A shortlist of six artists vying for the ninth edition of the biennial prize was announced Sept. 24. The artists are Firelei Báez (Dominican Republic), Dineo Seshee Bopape (South Africa), Meiro Koizumi (Japan), Beatriz Santiago Muñoz (Puerto Rico), Prabhakar Pachpute (India),...
THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS (DIA) has named Denene De Quintal assistant curator of Native American art in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and Indigenous Americas. De Quintal is joining the DIA after serving for two years as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow in Native Arts at the Denver...
Installation view of “Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech” at MCA Chicago THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO is presenting the first museum exhibition dedicated to Virgil Abloh. The fast-rising designer and inveterate collaborator is the head of menswear design at Louis Vuitton and founder of the “streetwear” label Off-White. A traveling survey spanning two...
Installation view of work by Daniel Lind-Ramos at 2019 Whitney Biennial NEW YORK, N.Y.—Throughout the run of the 2019 Whitney Biennial, an inordinate amount of attention has been paid to the challenges and controversies surrounding the exhibition at the expense of consideration of the art on view in the galleries. Amid protests, mixed reviews,...
THE ROOTS OF THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL date to 1932. Originally an annual event, the exhibition was established as a biennial in 1973. Through the decades, organizers of the group show have sought to reflect the state of contemporary art and tap the pulse of what’s going on outside the museum’s galleries. As a result,...
BLACK PEOPLE FLOATING leisurely in pools are among the most recognizable images Derrick Adams has made in recent years. The brightly colored scenes in his Floaters series usually feature an individual figure lounging on an inflatable floater. “Floater 49” (2017), a mixed-media collage work from his Floaters series appears on the fall 2019 cover...
AGAINST A STORMY BACKDROP, the 2019 J. Paul Getty Medals were presented to Mary Beard, an author and classics professor at the University of Cambridge, and American artists Ed Ruscha and Lorna Simpson. The recipients were announced in January and a dinner was held in their honor Sept. 16. Simpson’s recent paintings have been...
BLENDING PROVOCATIVE PERSPECTIVES on race and gender relations, a unique sense of humor, knowledge of Western art history, and lived experience with American identity, culture, and traditions, Robert Colescott (1925-2009) developed an insightful and thought-provoking practice that didn’t shy away from controversial topics and images that might offend. He was an exceptional painter whose...
IT’S NO SURPRISE Q-Tip is a serious record collector, given his vocation. When Gail King visited the renowned member of A Tribe Called Quest at his New Jersey home for a CBS This Morning segment, he told her he had about 9,000 records. Footage from the segment indicated Q-Tip has an interest in...
FOR THE FIRST TIME in more than three decades, “Charles White: A Retrospective” offered a career-spanning overview of Charles White, whose powerful paintings and drawings capture the strength, beauty, and dignity of African Americans. While showcasing White’s artistic practice was the focus of the museum survey, his son, Ian White, realized the traveling exhibition...
EXPLORING THE INTERSECTION of reality, memory, and perception, Nathaniel Mary Quinn paints composite portraits that read as collage. In actuality, they are produced with oil paint, gouache, charcoal, oil stick, and pastels in his own hand. He has said his fragmented and visually layered portraits are based on the faces of people he...
EMMA AMOS, “The Reader,” 1967 (oil on canvas in artist’s frame, 41 1/4 × 61 inches). | Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York A PORTRAIT of a Harlem suit shop owner by Jordan Casteel is on view in the 1940s to Now...
THE TATE MODERN MUSEUM in London announced new appointments to its curatorial team today, covering African, Middle Eastern and South Asian modern and contemporary art. Nabila Abdel Nabi (Middle East and North Africa), Osei Bonsu (Africa), and Devika Singh (South Asia), have been named curators, international art. Valentina Ravaglia’s new role is curator, displays and...
THE CALIFORNIA AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM (CAAM) announced a new appointment today. Curator, writer, and editor Cameron Shaw has been named deputy director and chief curator of the Los Angeles Museum. Shaw is the co-founder of Pelican Bomb, a New Orleans-based contemporary art nonprofit that provided a platform for exhibitions, public programming, and arts journalism. For...
Lot 273: ALMA WOODSEY THOMAS (1891-1978), “Untitled,” circa 1970 (watercolor on paper, 13.2 x 15.75 inches framed). | Estimate $20,000-$30,000 Women working in Abstract Expressionism and an array of artists active in Chicago are among the highlights of the Sept. 15 African American Fine Art Auction at Treadway Gallery in Cincinnati. The gallery has...
“Untitled #7” (1975) by Howardena Pindell The following review presents a snapshot of recent news in African American art and related black culture: ARTISTS The New York Times profiled Betye Saar in advance of her fall solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Los Angeles County Museum of...
BALTIMORE-BORN, Brooklyn-based artist Derrick Adams is working with two new galleries. Luxembourg & Dayan and Salon 94 announced their collaborative representation of Adams Sept. 5. His multidisciplinary practice spans painting, collage, sculpture, video, sound, and performance. Adams will continue to be represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago. Described by the galleries, Adams’s practice...
“The Sugar Shack” (1976) by Ernie Barnes LOS ANGELES—A master storyteller, Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) painted from experience. He captured the brawn of football and the quotidian of life in the segregated South. His representational images depict what he saw growing up in Durham, N.C., where black people gathered for communion and competition on porches and...
From the New York Times video: Pool Party | Mickalene Thomas and Racquel Chevremont FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, Brooklyn-based Mickalene Thomas has decamped to a property in Salisbury, Conn., during “kids-away-from-school” time with Racquel Chevremont, her partner in work and life, and their three children. Purchased in 2013, Thomas calls the 19th century...
WHEN THE PASADENA MUSEUM of California Art (PMCA) unexpectedly closed last October, after 16 years, there were three final exhibitions on view, including “Grafton Tyler Brown: Exploring California,” a small survey of Pacific Northwest landscape paintings and commercial lithographs. A pioneer, Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918) was the state’s first African American contractor and is...
New York Museum are Showcasing African American Art, Exhibitions Feature Lorna Simpson, Rashid Johnson, Beauford Delaney, Amy Sherald, Black Dandyism & More
Jun 11, 2025
Culture Type | The Month in Black Art: Here’s What Happened in May 2025
Jun 8, 2025
Henry Taylor, Tyler Mitchell, and Amy Sherald Among Artists Who Walked Met Gala ‘Blue’ Carpet Based on Cy Gavin Painting
Jun 7, 2025
Barnes Foundation Appointed Judia S. Jackson Head of Human Resources and Culture at Philadelphia Museum
Jun 1, 2025
Malcolm X at 100: Transformational Leader and Outspoken Orator Inspired Artworks by Jack Whitten and Barbara Chase-Riboud
May 30, 2025
